Posts Tagged ‘racism’

ANONYMOUS letter to Richmond City Council and Mayor re: Shockoe Bottom Baseball Stadium

Posted: May 18, 2013 in Uncategorized
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We are a little late in posting this, thanks to all the folks in Richmond who have been working to publicise this letter and this issue. No baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom!!!

May 8th, 2013

TO THE SITTING MEMBERS OF RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL AND MAYOR’S OFFICE

We have watched with displeasure the most recent crimes of the Richmond City administration and its petty ambitions; it sells its soul to the rapacious FIRE sector and throws its citizens to the wolves to appease the never-ending greed of its shadowy elite. There is no change in Richmond, only the quiet hum of the Jones Machine and the avaricious stare of the sitting mayor, dancing obediently on the strings of privileged and secret interests. There is no hope in Richmond, only despair for those who remember the lessons of the past. There is no voice in Richmond, only a pathetic handful of ‘local’ media sources who are content to take their pittances from corporate masters while their city rots around them. The corruption leaking from every pore of the city is indicative of its inability to understand or accept its own past.

In this city once flourished the most oppressive and disgusting form of business ever created by mankind: the slave trade. Human beings were bought and sold like chattel by the hundreds of thousands based solely on the color of their skin. From Richmond, blacks were shipped all over the country to sweat, bleed, and die at the pleasure of white slave-owners. The scars of this atrocity still bleed and fester in the forms of institutionalized racism and economic apartheid against people of color.

For too long Richmond’s elites have systematically manipulated and disenfranchised its black majority through regressive economic policy, criminally negligent spending priorities, mock elections, and shadowy real estate deals. Jackson Ward was obliterated by white elites to make room for an interstate highway. Navy Hill’s earthly remains consist of a marker found in a parking garage by a local professor. The black children of Richmond’s school system suffer from a 75% poverty rate. Black preschoolers attend a program for disadvantaged youth on top of an unlined dump in a school that was built during the era of Jim Crow. Huge swathes of East Broad Street were gentrified to make way for the Richmond Convention Center and CenterStage Theater, a coup for the conspicuous consumers that make up Richmond’s elite patrons and coordinated by Bob Mooney, former chief financier of Richmond-based Ethyl Corp. Monument Avenue’s statuary stands as false exoneration of the ‘heroes’ of the Civil War; ‘heroes’ whose greatest achievement will forever be marked as failing to win the war they fought so desperately to win.

Decades ago, the discovery of the Burial Ground for Negroes (now Richmond’s African Burial Ground) by Elizabeth Cann Kambourian under a parking lot in Shockoe Bottom began the decades-long struggle towards the reclamation of the nation’s second-most-successful slave market by the inheritors of its legacy of cruelty and hate.

Now, as Richmond’s black residents continue to make progress to regain their past and right the great injustice that white supremacist power has laid upon them, the white land barons have again mobilized to murder the threat of black power in its crib. The specter of the Shockoe Ballpark has been resurrected by Richmond’s criminal capitalist class under the guise of ‘growth’ and ‘wealth.’ The charge is in part led by one H. Louis Salomonsky, an unrepentant capitalist sent to prison several years ago for bribing a public official in a failed bid to swing a mayoral election; his cries of “community!” serve merely to increase the value of his many real estate holdings through wasteful public expenditure projects. His tendrils, and those of others like him, extend far into local politics; the real estate sector outspends the next highest industry in Richmond political campaigns by two to one.

We call you out, Dwight Jones. Your 2012 unopposed mayoral election garnered you $314,499 in funds; $43,350 came from the land barons and their interests, with $2,500 alone from Salomonsky and his subsidiaries. Over the course of your sixteen-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $135,917.

We call you out, Charles Samuels. Your 2012 election garnered you $63,225 in funds; $10,850 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your four-year political career, the landlords have bribe you for $24,250.

We call you out, Chris Hilbert. Your 2012 election against a neophyte social worker garnered you $41,702 in funds; $5,155 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your eight-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $43,472.

We call you out, Kathy Graziano. Your 2012 election garnered you $96,838 in funds; $12,450 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your eight-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $71,706.

We call you out, Ellen Robertson. Your 2012 unopposed election garnered you $12,110 in funds; $1,000 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your nine-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $29,525.

We call you out, Cynthia Newbille. Your 2012 unopposed election garnered you $17,166 in funds; $1,300 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your three-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $4,100.

We call you out, Reva Trammell. Your 2012 election garnered you $65,141 in funds; $6,645 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your political career, the landlords have bribed you for more than $20,095.

We are watching you, Jon Baliles. Bruce Tyler was sold to the landlords for only $82,307.

We are watching you, Parker Agelasto. Martin Jewell was sold to the landlords for only $20,600.

We are watching you, Michelle Mosby. Douglas Conner was sold to the landlords for only $29,400.

We demand that the city permanently halt attempts by its white landowners to build a ballpark in this critically important district and commit fully and transparently to enacting recommendations by the Richmond Trail of Enslaved Africans Commission for a heritage site in Shockoe Bottom.

We will be watching.

WE ARE ANONYMOUS.
WE ARE LEGION.
WE DO NOT FORGIVE.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
EXPECT US.

http://www.defendersfje.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/shockoeb…

http://www.us.iofc.org/unpacking-iofc-census

http://saverichmond.com/?p=173

http://www.change.org/petitions/richmond-school-board-do-norrell-element…

http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/reconnecting-dotts/Content?oid=13608…

http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/free-and-clear/Content?oid=1887302

http://www.vpap.org/donors/profile/index/10145?start_year=2012&end_year=…

http://www.vpap.org/donors/profile/index/128997?start_year=2012&end_year…

http://www.vpap.org/donors/profile/index/133714?cmte_type_1=local_cands&…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/1614?start_yea…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/16049?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/152342?start_y…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/70346?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/9426?start_yea…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/76455?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/106406?start_y…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/15206?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/16049?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/38785?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/28787?start_ye…

No Stadium in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom! Defend Richmond’s African History!

Posted: May 4, 2013 in Uncategorized
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No Stadium In Shockoe Bottom! Defend Richmond’s African History
Public
Hosted by Brandon Nastanski and Phil Wilayto

When
Monday at 12:00pm
Where
Email, and City Council Chambers

This is a two part invite… First and foremost we need you to email and or call city council members to let them know that you don’t want a Baseball Stadium in Shockoe Bottom. Second, if you can please try and attend a special City Council Meeting being held this Monday from 12-4. Please see further details below including sample email and council members email addresses…

An Urgent Appeal from the African Ancestral Chamber,
Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and other opponents
to putting a baseball stadium in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom

It looks like Richmond’s business and political elite are about to launch their project to put a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom, one of the most important historical sites for people of African descent in all of North America.

Please email Mayor Dwight Jones and members of the City Council and tell them we don’t want a stadium in Shockoe Bottom. Use this sample email or make up your own.

But please do this right away! City Council will be meeting in a special session Monday, May 6, from noon to 4 pm in the Council Chambers in Richmond City Hall. We think they will be voting on issuing bonds to pay for work in the Bottom to prepare for the stadium. These elected officials need to hear from us now!

[Sample email:]

Will Richmond’s legacy be the desecration of Shockoe Bottom?

I understand that Richmond City Council will be discussing capital funding at a special meeting from noon to 4 p.m. on Monday, May 6. You should know that there is strong community opposition to building a baseball stadium on the site of Richmond’s former slave-trading district.

No Baseball Stadium in Shockoe Bottom! Defend Richmond’s African History!

[Email addresses:]

“Mayor Dwight C. Jones”


1st District – “Jonathan Balilies”


2nd District – “Charles Samuels”


3rd District – “Chris Hilbert”


4th District –


5th District – “Parker Agelasto”


6th District – “Ellen Robertson”


7th District – “Cynthia Newbille”


8th District – “Reva Trammell”


9th District – “Michelle Mosby”

[Linked – just cut and paste this entire list into the “To” box in your email program.]

“Mayor Dwight C. Jones” , “Jonathan Balilies” , “Charles Samuels” , “Chris Hilbert” , , “Parker Agelasto” , “Ellen Robertson” , “Cynthia Newbille” , “Reva Trammell” , “Michelle Mosby”

What else can you do to help?

Forward this email to as many people as you can.
Come to the special Richmond City Council meeting on Monday, May 6, from noon to 4 pm. Come for as long as you can, but even a few minutes will help.
Read the Spring 2013 edition of The Virginia Defender newspaper to learn more about Shockoe Bottom’s important history. The newspaper will be uploaded this weekend to: http://www.DefendersFJE.org.
Reply to this email and tell us if you’d like to help in this important campaign to save Richmond’s African history.

8 new books in Wingnut Radical Lending Library- Queer and Southern

Posted: December 1, 2012 in Uncategorized
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Here are 8 new titles in our Wingnut Radical Lending Library. Come to our collective meeting on January 28th if you are interested in joining and helping us organize the library, staff open hours, and organize events and projects as the Wingnut Anarchist Collective!

Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia by Steve Hogan

The Queerest Places: A National Guide to Gay and Lesbian Historic Sites by Paula Martinac

True Love by Fulton, Jennifer published by Naiad Pr Paperback by –N/A–

After the Fire by Jane Rule

Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson

Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War by David Williams

Labor Struggles In The Deep South and Other Writings by Covington Hall

What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, and the State of the Nation by The South End Press Collective

 

Videos from Norrell Protest at School Board Meeting 9/4/12

Posted: September 13, 2012 in Uncategorized
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Here are 3 videos from the protest on 9/4/12 at the Richmond School Board meeting over the decision to re-open Norrell Elementary school in Barton Heights

This first is just a short clip of some of the protesters before the meetings.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/49290245″>Norrell Elementary Protest 9/4/12</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/wingnutrva”>WingnutAnarchistCollective</a&gt; on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

These next two are of the public comments period at the beginning of the meetings, when folks spoke out against Norrell – after the break: (more…)

From Parents For Life 2012- RPS Lies about Norrell Dangers On Website

Posted: September 12, 2012 in Uncategorized
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Some amazing activists with the group Parents For Life 2012 have exposed some glaring lies by the Richmond Public Schools about A.V. Norrell. Thanks to Parents For Life 2012 for shedding light on the issues, and keeping the pressure on!

From Parents For Life 2012:

Richmond Public School recently put out an FAQ section on their website, in relation to the relocation of the Head Start program to A.V Norrell Elementary. In this FAQ, they lie about the contents of a 2007 FEMA report (available by email, mcnealkc [at] vcu.edu if you want us to email you the file), and about the capacity of John B. Cary Elementary. The complete refutation is attached as a .doc file.

In brief, RPS claimed that the 2007 report declared Norrell safe and the landfill no longer a problem, while in reality, FEMA detected levels of methane gas “approaching the upper explosive limit”, and unequivocally stated that the landfill is still a safety risk at the time of writing. Richmond Public Schools also alleges that no other school could accommodate 250 students, while a news report from May of this year represents John B. Cary elementary (which the FAQ mentions by name) as operating 700 students under capacity.

These discrepancies, calculated as they appear, can’t be accidental. RPS is lying about A.V Norrell Elementary.
(more…)

First Day of Class Vigil at Norrell Elementary School- Monday September 10th

Posted: September 9, 2012 in Uncategorized
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Parents For Life_2012 invites you to join us for the Preschoolers First Day of Class Vigil at Norrell Elementary School. Norrell Elementary School was closed in 2006 because there were environmental concerns about the site, which was built on an old city landfill.

On facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/events/466670310021143/

Parents for Life_2012 believe that the health and welfare of the city’s children should be the primary concern of the Richmond City School Board. We are committed to remain vigilant in our demand for an excellent learning environment for our most

vulnerable 3 & 4 year old pre-schoolers as well. We will remind everyone that we believe this school board has failed in their duty to OUR children.Please join us in reminding the school board that they have endangered our children and that we will persist in our effort to protect our children.

While we wish to express our outrage at the school board’s decision, we do not want to frighten the children nor do we want to interrupt nor interfere with the normal operation of the school.

We, therefore want everyone attending this vigil to be respectful of students and staff. We ask that this be a quiet vigil and that no one yell at school personnel nor enter the school grounds. We are to remain on the sidewalks.

Representatives of Parents For Life_2012 will be present in shifts starting at 7:30 AM until 4:00 PM on Monday Sept 10.

Please join us during the times listed below as you are able.

Shifts will run:
7:30 AM to 9:30 AM
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM
11:30 AM to 2:00 PM
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM

A. V. NORRELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 2120 FENDALL AVENUE, RICHMOND, VA 23222

Articles pertaining to FEMA, EPA, and Headstart violations of Norrell Elementary

Posted: September 4, 2012 in Uncategorized
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Some folks helping Parents For Life 2012, did some research today. In less than 2 hours, using google, they were able to find evidence to support the case that AV Norrell Elementary is NOT fit to be re-opened.

Please read the articles below, and look out for an upcoming report from them on what can be found with the articles.

http://www.richmondcitywatch.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2069

At tonight’s School Board Meeting, the School Board had decided in a work group meeting before to continue with their decision to re-open Norrell Elementary next week to host pre-school age children.
From 5-7 around 40 or more protesters came out and held signs in front of the 9th Street Entrance to City Hall. There was also a strong media presence.
When the School Board Meeting finally started around 7:30, around 7 or more people got up to speak against the re-opening of Norrell. Protesters made impassioned cases, bringing up numerous points against the re-opening. The School Board members seemed largely unaffected, and offered no response.
Please stay tuned, because if the School Board goes ahead with this ignorant, dangerous, environmentally and institutionally racist plan, they will continue to face a mounting resistance.
Email burtonal@live.com or parentsforlife.2012@gmail.com to get involved.
Don’t put our babies on the dump!!

Parents For Life 2012 – Don’t Put Our Babies on the Dump – Protest Tuesday Sept. 4!

Posted: September 3, 2012 in Uncategorized
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Tuesday Sept 4th at 5pm, Parents for Life 2012 will be picketing around City Hall, in response to the recent School Board decision to send over 250 pre-k students into an old, unsafe, built on a dump, school that was shut down in 2006.

There is a School Board meeting at 7pm that we will be attending as well.

When: Tuesday, September 4th

Time: 5:00pm Picket

7:00pm School Board Meeting

Where: City Hall 9th St. Entrance

301 N. Ninth Street

Richmond, VA 23219

For More Information Contact: Art Burton (804) 467- 6408 or email burtonal@live.com

Parents For Life 2012!   parentsforlife.2012@gmail.com

Some recent articles on this issue:

Pre-School at the Dump

Decision to Re-Open School Sparks Protest Plans

Re-Opening of Norrell for Pre-k Generates Controversy

 

More info, and previous press release after the cut: (more…)

Video of First Meeting of New Barton Heights Neighborhood Association

Posted: July 19, 2012 in Uncategorized
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On July 18th there was a meeting of a group of people interested in re-forming a Barton Heights Neighborhood Association. The Wingnut Anarchist Collective was concerned by both the small amount of outreach ahead of the meeting, and also the types of decisions on the agenda for the first meeting. We made fliers and notified as many neighbors as we could, but it was not an ideal situation in terms of being able to get word out. Luckily, enough folks did come out who agreed that we needed a much more representative of our neighborhood body to be able to make foundational decision.

We filmed the meeting to make it available to folks who could not make it last night.

The next event will be a National Night Out Event on August 7th at Yancey Street Park- more info to come on that next week after our planning meeting.

The next official meeting of the neighborhood association will be Tuesday September 11th at 6:30 pm, location TBA, but we are looking for one closer to Barton Heights.

July 18, 2012 Barton Heights Neighborhood Association Meeting from WingnutAnarchistCollective on Vimeo.

We passed out fliers on how Consensus decision making works, and Rusty’s Rules of Order as used by the IWW (Thanks to the Richmond IWW branch for those copies http://www.richmondiww.org). Here are links to those for folks interested in learning about multiple options before we decide on how we as a neighborhood association will be making decisions.

http://zinelibrary.info/quick-guide-consensus-0

http://gainesvilleiww.org/resources/blog1.php/rusty-s-rules-of-order

We think it is significant/interesting to note, that despite the resistance to using anything other than majority rules voting for decision making at the meeting, that the group actually used consensus to make it’s decisions!

 

Defenders respond to postponement of Slave Trail marker ceremony

Posted: March 31, 2011 in Uncategorized
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The Richmond Defenders for Freedom, Justice, and Equality just released an announcement that they are holding their own ceremony in regards to the new historical markers along the Richmond Walk of Enslaved Africans. The Mayor, Governor, and others decided to postpone the originally scheduled event this Sunday in order to attend a VCU basketball game. This scheduling change is extremely problematic, considering the fact that VCU continues to park cars on the African Burial Ground despite full knowledge of the many reasons for that to be disrespectful at best.

If you can, please attend the ceremony on Sunday in support of the Defenders and others organizing against racism in Richmond. The statement from the Defenders is below:

PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223  Ph: 804.644.5834  Fax: 804.332.5225
E-mail: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com www.DefendersFJE.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 31, 2011
MEDIA CONTACTS: ANA EDWARDS or PHIL WILAYTO at (804) 644-5834 or DefendersFJE@hotmail.com

Defenders pull out of City’s Slave Trail Commission ceremony; call for independent event on April 3

In light of the City’s inexcusable postponement of Sunday’s ceremony honoring sites associated with Richmond’s dominant role in the U.S. slave trade, the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality have informed the city’s Slave Trail Commission that we will no longer be participating in this event. Instead, we are calling on the community to hold its own independent event on Sunday, at the time and place of the original program.

Originally scheduled for April 3 – Richmond’s Emancipation Day – the Slave Trail Commission’s ceremony was to celebrate the unveiling of 17 historical markers along Richmond’s Walk of Enslaved Africans. Ana Edwards, Chair of the Defenders’ Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, had been invited by Commission Chair Delores McQuinn to unveil the marker at the African Burial Ground, at 15th and East Broad streets.

The Defenders had initially accepted the invitation because we thought it important to acknowledge the placement of these markers as a good step forward in making Richmond’s Black history visible, and to again demand the immediate closing of the Virginia Commonwealth University parking lot and removal of the asphalt that now covers this sacred site.

However, the Commission rescheduled the event for April 10 after Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones and Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell decided that, instead of honoring their commitment to speak at Sunday’s ceremony, they would instead travel to Houston, Texas, to watch the VCU Rams compete in the Final Four NCAA basketball game.

After nearly 10 years of struggle by the Defenders and many other community organizations and individuals, a bill introduced by Delegate McQuinn to authorize the transfer of the Burial Ground property to the City was unanimously adopted by this year’s General Assembly. Further, a budget amendment introduced by the governor authorizing $3.3.million to compensate VCU for the transfer also passed. And yet, the university – the area’s dominant economic and political powerhouse – continues to use the Burial Ground for a parking lot.

The VCU connection in the decision to postpone Sunday’s unveiling ceremony simply adds insult to this historical and cultural injury, said Edwards. (more…)

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